Building the Wall: A look at the Disaster Results

 

The Result of the Disaster

Well today the form from the form break was removed.  All in all, the result is far better than I had expected.  The bow is only prominent if looked at from a certain angle, otherwise it can be seen, but it is not a reject. 

The face came out quite nice, with the relief from the boards and the grain of the wood easily seen.  in places there are so many wood particles in the concrete face, it looks the color of wood.  This will wear off in a few weeks, but right now, it brings our remarks from most everyone. 

The band you see on the upper edge of the wall is a dental molding formed into the concrete.  I made the strip in my shop, and embedded them into the upper band.  At the moment, there is some cracking so is will have to wait for the wood to shrink as it dries out. then it should come out more easily. 

The Deck starts

 

Starting the Deck

<-- ORIGINAL

 

 

We now move forward to constructing the deck in front of the wall. The northern end of the deck lies on the ledge  in front base of the wall.  With my ace assistant and Gracie overseeing the work, I finished the joists.  Next I started laying the decking.  I am using Trex Winchester Grey with a decking device to hold down the boards invisibly.  Boards go down fairly easily, bit some time required to use a biscuit cutter to groove boards for holding devices.

The plan is to have a radius from the north-south boards of the ramp to the east-west boards of the main deck.  The internal radius will be 24" and the outer radius will be 60" This will take fifteen 36" boards cut in a pie shape and a radius recut on the face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures show the start and in progress installation of the quarter circle of Trex.  To make the pieces, I laid a piece of OSB on the deck, and aligned on edge to where the first board would lay, then drew a line from the edge of the next board to the screw I placed as center.  Then I screwed a scrap piece of straight lumber to the OSB on the line. Then I went to my table saw and cut the OSB to a known width using the first side as a guide.  Now I could lay the Trex on the jig and cut them .  I used a radius cutter on my router to make the boards all look the same.  With a bit of sun and some time, all the surfaces will turn a light gray and what we see now as color changes, will disappear. 

The process of laying deck will continue down the ramp towards the street.  I will post more photos when that is completed.

Concrete Counter in Garden Area

I have shared a few of these in the past, and more will come as this project finishes. What you are seeing is the progression of building a concrete counter from the supporting 2x6 pressure treated members then the plywood stoppers on the underside of the concrete (they are removed once the counter is dried)

Once the concrete has dried for some time, I start grinding.  First to remove the 'cream' from the top to expose the aggregate then using a strait edge and a level, i make the slight flow to the sink from the surrounding area.  The wire you see in the first picture is used to prevent cracking.  the item above the hammer is the drain housing for the sink

 Here is late at night.  The process took 14 hours of almost continuous work to this point
 This photo shows the first grind on the top to remove the cream and expose the aggregate.








The rubber against the stucco makes sure that the concrete does not stick to the wall.  Eventually there will be a back-splash.  I want to build some shelves for plant nursery over the right arm.  

 My step-son Craig is working it here.  He showed me how to grind on the surface, and as is his way, spent most of the day doing it, so I grabbed the camera

.   I have done more work improving the fall into the sink, so that any mess on the counter-top will flow into the sink.

I will post when I have completed that task.